Gifts
by erm31323
Summary: Written for Round 5 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. In the wake of his friend's death, Arthur contemplates the gifts he's been given, one very important one in particular.


**A/N - Here's my entry for the Round 5 of the Quidditch League Fanfiction Competition. My prompt this time was Molly/Arthur. Hope you enjoy! **

**Gifts**

**May 1980**

Arthur stood in his shed, holding the small radio in his hand. Richard had given it to him as a graduation gift, knowing how much Arthur loved anything muggle. The radio hadn't worked of course. All the magic coursing through Hogwarts had shorted it out the moment Richard had stepped onto the grounds, but Arthur didn't care. He'd brought it home and taken it apart, fascinated by all the wires and connections inside. The batteries that it contained were an added bonus, the first in his now rather large collection. Arthur's eyes misted over as he thought about his friend.

Richard was a muggle-born and one of the first friends Arthur had made when he started at Hogwarts. The two had both been sorted into Gryffindor and Richard was Arthur's first connection to the muggle world. Arthur couldn't deny that he'd been interested in muggle things before he'd ever met Richard, but he knew that it was their friendship that had piqued his curiosity even more.

And now Richard was dead, killed for nothing more than the blood that ran through his veins. Arthur's sadness turned to white-hot anger as he glanced at the copy of the Daily Prophet again and reread the article about his Richard and his family's demise. Two children, younger than Fred and George, along with Richard's wife and himself, killed by the Death Eaters, the Dark Mark left hanging over the house. The thought of it made Arthur want to run into the house and gather all his boys and Molly up and never let them go.

He sighed, rubbing his forehead with his fingertips and then looked at the radio again. He summoned the bottle of firewhiskey and a glass he kept hidden in a cupboard and poured himself some. Raising the glass, he toasted his friend. "To Richard, without whom I wouldn't have the life I have today."

Tossing back the glass he smiled as he set it down on the table in front of him. No, if it hadn't been for Richard things might have been very, very different for Arthur.

**March 1966**

Arthur watched as she rose from the table with her friends. Clarissa said something to her and she laughed, throwing her long auburn hair back as she did so, exposing the creamy, white skin of her neck. Her soft brown eyes danced with mirth and her grin nearly lit up the entire room. The spoon of pudding Arthur had been bringing to his mouth stopped midway, completely forgotten, as he stared at her in open-mouthed awe.

"For Merlin's sake Arthur, close your mouth," Richard hissed from his right. Arthur started and his spoon clattered to the table as he turned to look at his friend. Richard rolled his eyes. "You know, for a bloke who's too scared to even talk to her, you sure do spend a fair amount of time mooning after her."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Arthur said with a sniff, picking up his spoon and going back to his pudding. He glanced up from under his eyelashes for one last look at Molly before she disappeared out the door of the Great Hall.

"Really, you don't," Richard replied, not voicing it as a question. "So you're denying the fact that you've been drooling over Molly Prewett for at least a year now?"

"I haven't been drooling over her," Arthur protested, face reddening a bit, which elicited another eye roll from Richard.

"Sure you haven't," he said with a snort, putting another helping of treacle tart on his plate.

"It doesn't matter anyway," Arthur said. "She's dating that Diggory bloke from Hufflepuff."

"He's a tosser," Richard said.

"He's all right," Arthur said with a shrug. "And she seems to like him." It was true. Arthur had stumbled across the two of them snogging a few weeks before when he had gotten turned around by one of the moving staircases on his way to the library.

"That's not what I heard," Richard replied, a grin on his face that said he knew something Arthur didn't. Arthur turned to him. Richard was friends with nearly everyone in their house, including the girls. The fact that he'd dated most of them, the fourth years and up anyway, did seem to help.

"What are you talking about?" Arthur asked carefully. Richard shrugged.

"According to Clarissa, Molly's getting a bit irritated with Diggory and his, shall we say, wandering hands," Richard replied, a bit smugly. Anger flared briefly in Arthur, thinking of anyone treating Molly with anything less than respect. And if anyone would know for sure, it would be Clarissa. Since Richard had been snogging her for the last three weeks, chances were his information was correct. But still, Arthur remembered seeing Molly and Diggory walking hand in hand to Herbology just two days before.

"I don't know, Richard, they looked rather cozy to me the other day in Herbology," Arthur said, his shoulders slumping. Richard sighed and put a hand on Arthur's shoulder.

"Are you a Gryffindor or not man?" he asked in exasperation. Arthur glanced over his shoulder at the Hufflepuff table and saw Diggory holding court with his friends. He sighed.

"Not, I guess," he said sadly, then pushed his plate away and picked up his bag. "I'll see you later Rich." He walked morosely from the Great Hall, not noticing the glint of determination in his friend's eye.

Two weeks later, Arthur sat at a table in the back of the library, open books surrounding him. He had his hands in his hair which caused it to stand on end and a quill between his teeth as he reread the same paragraph for the third time. Potions was definitely not his strong suit and Professor Slughorn had assigned them a nearly impossible essay, in Arthur's opinion anyway. He groaned after he'd read the paragraph again and still didn't understand it, gently banging his head on the table in front of him.

A piece of folded parchment fluttered down in front of him and Arthur raised his head, brow furrowed in confusion. He picked it up and opened it. The handwriting was definitely feminine, but Arthur didn't recognize it. As he read the message, his eyes widened.

_Arthur,_

_Meet me near the beech tree by the Black Lake at 8:00 on Thursday._

_-M_

Arthur's breath left him in a rush. "M". It couldn't be, could it? Molly wanted to meet him? Arthur swallowed thickly and quickly gathered his things into his bag and rushed from the library.

"Richard," he called as he came through the portrait hole. His friend looked up from his seat by the fire. He was snuggled up to Clarissa and didn't look very pleased at being interrupted. Arthur indicated the staircase to the boy's dorms with his head and Richard sighed. He kissed Clarissa on the cheek and got up and followed Arthur up the stairs.

"This better be good," he said, once they were safely ensconced in the fifth year boys' dorm. Arthur wordlessly handed him the parchment. Richard read it and then grinned at Arthur.

"Do you," Arthur's voice cracked and he cleared his throat. "Do you think it's from her?"

"Who else would it be from?" Richard asked.

"Well there are plenty of girls whose names start with M," Arthur said, beginning to pace around the room.

"Blokes too," Richard teased and Arthur glared at him. Richard chuckled.

"Come on Arthur, of course it's from her," he said. "She and Diggory had a row the other day. Didn't you hear about it?" Arthur shook his head. "She's dumped him, apparently." While he felt a bit badly about it, a wide grin split Arthur's face.

"You're sure?" he asked.

"Absolutely," Richard replied. He clapped his friend on the shoulder. "Go for it, mate."

Two nights later, Arthur stood under the beech tree, nervously shifting from foot to foot. He glanced at his watch nearly every thirty seconds and by 7:57 he had convinced himself that she wasn't coming. He turned back to look up at the castle again and saw a cloaked figure making its way toward the lake. After a few seconds, Arthur could see the shock of red hair in the darkness and he smiled. Then he gulped.

"Hello Arthur," Molly said quietly when she'd finally reached him.

"Molly," he acknowledged nervously. They stood in silence for a few minutes until they both began to speak at the same time. Molly blushed and Arthur thought he'd never seen a more beautiful sight in his life.

"Go ahead," she said to him, but he shook his head.

"No, ladies first," he responded. She smiled and Arthur corrected his earlier assessment. Molly Prewett blushing was beautiful, but Molly Prewett smiling was nothing short of breath-taking.

"I'm so glad you asked me to meet you," she said and Arthur looked at her in confusion.

"Sorry?" he said. Her smile faltered a bit.

"You asked me to meet you here," she repeated, beginning to look unsure.

"No, you asked me," he replied. Molly's smile was completely gone now and she looked confused. Arthur wasn't any less puzzled.

"I, I don't know what you're talking about," she stuttered out. She pulled a piece of parchment from the pocket of her robes. "I got your note." Arthur repeated her action and pulled his note from his own robes.

"But I got yours," he said. They exchanged notes and Arthur saw that the one Molly received said the same thing as his, but it was addressed to Molly and signed "A" instead of "M". They stared at one another in shock and then Arthur began to laugh. Molly soon joined in and she looked at the note in her hand again.

"Why, this is Clarissa's handwriting," she said in astonishment. Arthur glanced down at the note that Molly had received.

"Ah, and this is Richard's," he confirmed.

"Well, I suppose our friends know us better than we realized," she said.

"Yes, I suppose that they do," he replied. There was silence for a few moments. "I'm sorry about you and Diggory."

"I'm not," she said flatly and Arthur chuckled. Molly flashed him one of her brilliant smiles again and Arthur forgot how to speak for a moment. When he remembered, he cleared his throat and looked into her eyes.

"Molly Prewett, would you do me the honor of accompanying me to Hogsmeade next weekend?" he asked her in his most formal voice.

"Arthur Weasley, I would be delighted," she replied. He smiled and shyly took her hand and the two of them stood staring out at the lake and talking quietly until curfew.

**May 1980**

Arthur pulled from his reverie with a hearty sigh, his eyes more than just a bit misty now. There was a noise at the door to the shed and Molly poked her head inside.

"Arthur," she said. "Are you all right?"

"Fine, Molly," he said with a sigh. She smiled sadly and came into the shed.

"No you're not," she admonished, walking to his side and putting an arm around him. He returned the gesture, pulling her to him and kissing the top of her head.

"The boys all asleep?" he asked and Molly nodded.

"Yes, finally," she replied tiredly. Little Ronnie was just two months old and wasn't much of a sleeper as of yet. Arthur immediately felt guilty for leaving her with all of them by herself.

"I'm sorry," he said. "I should have come in and helped." Molly turned to face him and wrapped her arms around his waist.

"It's all right," she said. "Bill and Charlie helped me with the twins and you know that Percy is no trouble. I've put up the charm so I can hear Ronnie out here if he wakes up." Arthur nodded and rested his chin on top of her head, his arms going around her and pulling her towards him. She was a bit thicker round the middle than she had been all those years ago and there were a few lines on her face, but Arthur thought she was even more beautiful now.

"I'm so sorry about Richard," she whispered. Arthur couldn't do anything but nod. Molly looked at the table and saw the small radio sitting there. "He gave you this, didn't he?"

"Yes," Arthur replied. "At graduation. That's what started my battery collection." Molly chuckled and ran a finger lightly over the top of the radio.

"He knew you so well," she said.

"Better than I knew myself, sometimes," Arthur agreed, his voice choked with emotion. His fingers joined Molly's on the top of the radio "And while this was pretty wonderful, it wasn't the best gift he ever gave me." She looked up at him quizzically.

"What was then?" she asked. Arthur smiled and dipped his head, kissing her softly.

"You," he said simply and she smiled. Arthur was struck dumb once again and realized that Molly Prewett smiling wasn't the most breath-taking thing he'd ever seen. Molly Weasley smiling, on the other hand, was.


End file.
